The Daughter of the Commandant eBook

“No, Vassilissa Igorofna,” resumed the
Commandant, who remarked that his words had made a
great impression on his wife, perhaps for the first
time in her life; “it is not proper for Masha
to stay here. Let us send her to Orenburg to
her godmother. There are enough soldiers and cannons
there, and the walls are stone. And I should even
advise you to go away thither, for though you be old
yet think on what will befall you if the fort be taken
by assault.”

“Well! well!” said the wife, “we
will send away Masha; but don’t ask me to go
away, and don’t think to persuade me, for I will
do no such thing. It will not suit me either
in my old age to part from you and go to seek a lonely
grave in a strange land. We have lived together;
we will die together.”

“And you are right,” said the Commandant.
“Let us see, there is no time to lose.
Go and get Masha ready for her journey; to-morrow we
will start her off at daybreak, and we will even give
her an escort, though, to tell the truth, we have
none too many people here. But where is she?”

“At Akoulina Pamphilovna’s,” answered
his wife. “She turned sick when she heard
of the taking of Nijneosern; I dread lest she should
fall ill. Oh! God in heaven! that we should
have lived to see this!”

Vassilissa Igorofna went away to make ready for her
daughter’s departure.

The council at the Commandant’s still continued,
but I no longer took any part in it. Marya Ivanofna
reappeared for supper, pale and her eyes red.
We supped in silence, and we rose from table earlier
than usual. Each of us returned to his quarters
after bidding good-bye to the whole family. I
purposely forgot my sword, and came back to fetch it.
I felt I should find Marya alone; in fact, she met
me in the porch, and handed me my sword.

“Good-bye, Petr’ Andrejitch,” she
said to me, crying; “they are sending me to
Orenburg. Keep well and happy. Mayhap God
will allow us to see one another again, if not—­”

She began to sob. I pressed her in my arms.

“God be with you, my angel,” I said to
her. “My darling, my loved one, whatever
befall me, rest assured that my last thought and my
last prayer will be for you.”

Masha still wept, sheltered on my breast. I kissed
her passionately, and abruptly went out.

CHAPTER VII.

THE ASSAULT.

All the night I could not sleep, and I did not even
take off my clothes. I had meant in the early
morning to gain the gate of the fort, by which Marya
Ivanofna was to leave, to bid her a last good-bye.
I felt that a complete change had come over me.
The agitation of my mind seemed less hard to bear
than the dark melancholy in which I had been previously
plunged. Blended with the sorrow of parting, I
felt within me vague, but sweet, hopes, an eager expectation
of coming dangers, and a feeling of noble ambition.

The night passed quickly. I was going out, when
my door opened and the corporal came in to tell me
that our Cossacks had left the fort during the night,
taking away with them by force Joulai, and that around
our ramparts unknown people were galloping. The
thought that Marya Ivanofna had not been able to get
away terrified me to death. I hastily gave some
orders to the corporal, and I ran to the Commandant’s
house.